Ninja Ultima Blender Plus (BL830CB)

After a month of research, I decided on the top of the line Ninja. It performs as advertised. I'm not a huge fan of "good for you food" like: kale, spinach, broccoli, etc., but I found that blending them with tasty fruits like strawberries, blueberries, green grapes, oranges, apples, etc., you can mask the flavor of some of the "good stuff", and it comes out very tasty. It was an easy way to fix my unbalanced diet. You get the whole food because it's not a "juicer" like the Vitamix, which removes some of the most nutritious part of the food; the skins, seeds, stalks, etc.It's very well made and not as noisy as some would have you believe; it's about the same as a regular blender. I like the fact that after about 60 seconds of blending, the result is a completely smooth and very drinkable blend, void of any pulp, etc. I would recommend this to my family and friends. Oh, and it cleans up easily.

This blender has changed everything. I am not a smoothie person, or into health drinks, I just like to cook. I use this machine every day to make a sauce or a soup, to mix ingredients for ice cream. My son uses it to make a smoothie for his breakfast. Using this I have made vegetable soups that require very little cooking. Want broccoli soup? Cook the broccoli as little as possible, add some of the water you cooked it and blend. I couldn't believe how full of flavour it was. It is so easy to turn nuts into tasty sauces and soups, and the fact that the machine comes with essentially two blades, one for the individual cups, one for the large capacity pitcher (which also has a stacked blade) makes it even more versatile. I plan to buy more of the individual cups in the near future as I find I mix things in them and then put them in the refrigerator until I need them.I bought this because I read a Gordon Ramsay cookbook that recommended a multi horse power blender (I had a 'normal' blender) but I was loathe to spend money on something as expensive as a vitamix. I read all the reviews I could find and found that the performance of this machine was almost as good while the cost is a lot less.I have had it for just over a month and now can't imagine life without it. If things change, I'll update my review.One month later - I've had the blender for just over two months now, and it is my pride and joy, so you can imagine how upset I was when I found smoke coming out of it this morning. Quite a lot of smoke. I was blending soup, so nothing too difficult for my friendly blender. What upset me most was that when I came back to Amazon to find out what to do, loads of reviews jumped out at me, saying the customer service on the device was terrible. I almost didn't bother to call, but I'm glad I did.Inside the Ninja's box we found a nice colorful sheet that said 'if you have a problem or a question, call us.' this is from the manufacturer, so I called.It took a while, I was on hold for a few minutes, but I've found that's normal these days and at least, at the end, there was a human to talk to. She took my details and asked for some numbers from the machine, then passed me over to the claims department who are mailing me a label so I can send my Ninja back, and sending me a replacement within 3-5 business days.Now of course, it would be better if the equipment had not developed a fault at all, but this isn't a perfect world. In the circumstances, I do not think the company could could do more. I look forward to receiving my new model. If this doesn't work out, I will update my review. It will be a difficult week without my blender, but let's be positive, I'll love it all the more when it arrives.

Background:After about 3 years of psychic abuse, which eventually took its toll on my body, I began my journey to heal and rebuild myself inside out. My journey began with a lot of reading, misdiagnosis (this I can't blame the medical community for because in truth no one but you can know just how you feel), and wrong paths, I decided to take natural alternatives for a spin.I bought this unit and the nutribullet 900w. The latter arrived first so I had about two weeks to test it out. It worked very well for the most part. No issues with functionality. My concern was the size. It was too limiting given the items and quantity i needed to make. You see, I intend to go raw and have 90% of my food from plants, herbs and spices. So the nutribullet did not work for me for this specific need. However, given the small nature of the individual cups for the ninja, i may well purchase a nutribullet in the future.Enter Ninja ultimate blender. It is huge! And the blades are rather intimidating (think clean up here). First use: I had chucked it full of ginger, red spinach, kale, whole orange (peel, white, meat and all), whole lime, whole lemon, pineapple skin, pineapple fruit, bok choi, cauliflower, and a mango slices (with skin of course). After completely pulverizing the mix, I marvel at the now goo that lay in the blender but was given a short panic when i noticed smoke coming out of the back of the blender base. I later found out this was because the lid did not gear properly into the blade mast. Which I suppose caused too much pressure on the motor. This hasn't happened in subsequent uses however, so be mindful of this if and when you buy yours.I have had this for a little over a month and use it almost every day. This is going to be the future of food. No more synthetic supplements or medication. All the processed nonsense that is available in the stores and tagged "food" today, will be done away with in the future. When we continually ingest these toxins where our body expects nourishment to help it maintain proper functioning and health, our liver becomes over taxed. Subsequently, it is unable to maintain the required level of balance in the body. A build up of toxins cause the growth of cancerous centers in the body. Where the liver is strong, healthy and well taken care of, cancer can never form. Do some research yourself: where cancer has developed, such an individual has an unhealthy liver. That is the sole purpose of the liver. Where it forms, the liver must be addressed. Restoring it to proper function reverses the disease.

I am returning the product today. The reasons:1. Its too loud in single serve mode that I have to put ear plugs on.2. I wish that free standing giant blade was sturdy enough. I can see the dings on the blade when I started to use for crushing ice cubes for my smoothies. I think that's the major downside of getting this blender. Free standing blade is heavy and prone to cause accidents.3. The motor started giving burn odour after using it for less than a month.Three stars because the blender is good for gentle work. Not five stars because then you can use other cheaper blenders for the same gentle work. In no way I feel you should pay that amount for blender and not expect to work tirelessly. It should operate smoothly for that price.

Does an amazing job on smoothies. The only blender I have used that grinds up all the chia seeds in the smoothies. The single serve cups have been great when we only want to make one.

I"ve had this for about two weeks now and it makes some great smoothies.And how powerful it is is just amazing.Feeling pretty good too,it"s a great way to get all my veggies.

This blender is everything I hoped it would be. Great power and versatility. Easy to clean. Definitely worth the money.

For 100 dollars. This thing work great